City Of Houston Provides Ways To Fight More Dense Development

A series of public meetings will help Houstonians better understand recent changes to the city's development code. Chapter 42 allows developers to create more dense housing using smaller lots in more sections of the city.

"It allows a denser style of development — frequently known as townhome development. This allows them to be built other places in the city after a two-year period. There is a waiting period while we let the neighborhoods take advantage of some tools that we've adopted."

Those tools can help provide exemptions to prevent the establishment of smaller lots.

"Well, if neighborhoods want to kind of preserve their character — they have larger suburban-style lots, for instance — and don't have deed restrictions that address that, then they can adopt these lot-size tools which will help them preserve kind of the character of their neighborhood by preserving that existing lot size, allowing the developers not to subdivide those lots into, you know, those little tiny lots."

Neighborhoods with deed restrictions that have lapsed might be interested in the tools which are being discussed in a series of community meetings, located in the document below.